Kemerton 2012 TV aerial

Hi recently purchase a Kemerton 2012 model and very please with it apart from what I guess is the issue many have with poor tv reception on most of the sites I have visited in Norfolk & Suffolk. The flying saucer multi directional Status aerial does not allow me to seek the best transmissions so was considering replacing with the latest Status models that allow rotation etc. The dealer seams reluctant to fit one as the Boxer roof is "corrugated construction"  they fitted different booster but dosent appear to make any difference.
Does anybody have experence that might help please?

Hi and welcome to the forum from Bridlington .
Boaby

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You will benefit from a directional aerial but fitting a status to a van conversion in problematic. Avtex make a highly regarded directional aerial with built in amplifier [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

You can also use a standard domestic yagi fixed to a pole attached too or adjacent to your van.

Peter Brown wrote:............You will benefit from a directional aerial but fitting a status to a van conversion in problematic.  Avtex make a highly regarded directional aerial with built in amplifier............

Hi Peter, 

I don't want to go down the RoadPro Sat Dome route that we did on our last van and I'm looking for the best aerial for the Kingham. I have my eye on the Status 580, but alarm bells started ringing when I saw your comment !

I take it that it's not as straightforward a job, going through the roof from a cupboard, or are there other issues that make a roof mounted aerial problematic on panel vans ?

Also, I've heard reports that the Avtex is pretty poor north of the border, but I have to ask, would the Status perform any better in the wilds and northern regions of Scotland, or am I expecting too much from either system ?

Thanks, 

Ken.

To fit the status directional you need enough roof space around it to be able to swing through 360° above a cupboard that's deep enough to take the retractable support. That is much harder to find on a van than on a coachbuilt. You also have to keep away from any solar panel to avoid putting the panel in shade.

If you want reliable TV in the wilder regions then I'm afraid Satellite is the only option and actually a small auto dome system will be much easier to fit to the van than a status directional.

Thanks Peter,

I think I'm going to be better off waiting in that case. I'm planning on fitting an aftermarket side loading kayak rack, which has to have priority over the roof space. Once it's fitted I'll be able to see what options, if any remain.

Ken.

One thing that can make a big difference that I found is to make sure you use a quality fly lead, even better buy your own length of quality coaxial and put your own plugs on. Leads from places such as Poundland  are rubbish.

On our Nuevo we had a factory fitted Teleco wing directional aerial and 95% of the time we had excellent results. You should have no trouble in fitting that on a van conversion. We also carried a portable Multimo satellite dish for the odd occasion we had no signal.
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Sorry ~ a week late in seeing this about poor quality reception from the Teleco omnidirectional ariel. We had the same problem with our Warwick XL. We ordered a Status to be fitted by our dealer, who too seemed reluctant but agreed to do it. However on the day of fitting I told the technician I had read of the poor quality of wiring in AS vans, and could he please look at that first.

After an hour or so he came back to say the wiring was very awkwardly done and he could run the wire direct from the Teleco to one inside socket, and run the wire from the outside input to the satellite inside socket with an adapter to take the normal TV lead.

Since then we have made lots of trips with huge improvements in both the Teleco, and the outside input from the bollard.

The dealer did not even charge for those two hours work (thank you). He still has the Status held in stock in case we are not 100% satisfied - but so far so good.

@ Martin & Pauline
Glad you got it sorted. I think a lot of the time bad reception is due to poor quality cabling especially tge fly lead from TV to the socket.
Teleco aerials have a good reputation and are as good if not better than Status.

Hi I know the problem we had it , and I ended up rewiring most thing to an acceptable standard!! A/S wiring of the TV and ancillaries is summed up in one word "BIZARRE" Kind regards youll get there we did!  Paul

Something to consider when being critical of the tv reception is the quality of the tv receiver. I work building boats and part of that involves installing cables and tv equipment. Typically our boats have two TV's but one Ariel, I have found that the quality of the receivers in some quite expensive sets is very poor and searching for channels on board a boat can have very different results and it is usually the tv at fault. In fact some TV's are extremely poor, and its not price dependent, I have seen very good reception with some quite cheap TV's, where expensive TV's have failed to find more than 10 or so channels.

Guys another frustrating weekend (well only as far as TVs viewing and radio is concerned)
Gave up on the factory fitted aerial as it picked up lots of tv/ radio profs, good pictures on many channels but only for about 10 seconds then froze for another 10 etc etc, radio very similar. Wonted to listen to the Ryder cup, I listened in the end to near perfect radio reception on the vehicle radio, now how does that work?
I purchased a Avtec directional one tried this, absolutely nothing!!! I am waiting for a 12 v splitter so I can power this up in case the Avtec tv is not giving out. 12 volt supply.
To cap it all the van has developed a bad leak above the rear near side door so just dropped it off at the dealers.
Guess that's camping for you, lots of pleasure interspersed with challenges.

Regards K & S

K & S wrote:
I purchased a Avtec directional one tried this, absolutely nothing!!! I am waiting for a 12 v splitter so I can power this up in case the Avtec tv is not giving out. 12 volt supply.


Regards K & S

The Avtex TV can supply 12v via the aerial lead to power the Avtex aerial. You have to go into the menu system to switch it on. The aerial will not work without 12v. The Avtex independent 12v power supply can be inserted in the aerial lead to provide the same facility.

Hi appresiate the TVs should be putting out 12 v and I set the menu
To switch this function on. Just a remote possibility it's not hence the need for a splitter (one supplied can't reach the vans cig' socket)
Not expecting a result, but can't understand why the van radio was fine but no radio stations were found using this Avtec aerial.
As for the TV reception, no idea why I am having such issues.
Thanks for your advice, regards Keith

I find this scenario very frustrating as, for a trained person, it is very easy to identify and resolve your problem but they need to be 'hands on'. Steps would be:

1 Ensure you are in an area of strong tv signal
2 connect the van tv to a known good aerial (your house) and tune it in.
3 Connect the TV direct to the van aerial without using any of the van wiring or amplifiers - if all is well then, there is a wiring/amplifier problem

A THOUGHT: if you are using an axtex powered aerial you MUST bypass the van amplifier!

If after (3) all is not well, connect another aerial temporarily located on the van. If all is then well you have an aerial problem.

If you still haven't resolved your problem then a local tv aerial installer is probably best qualified to investigate on your behalf.

Thanks Peter, I will experiment. I didn't mention The dealers fitted a new amp' (said I didn't need a new Status type aerial) and said they had a strong reception, I don't have reason to doubt this as the TV appeared fine at handover a few weeks ago and they saved me some £300 by not replacing the aerial.

Regards Keith